Aaron McInnis approached a vehicle out of concern for a crying woman; the man who killed him will serve 18 years.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Aaron McInnis was dropping off a friend near a Northeast Portland park when another man asked him for help checking on a woman heard crying inside a nearby car. McInnis agreed to go, a decision that would place the 30-year-old father in the middle of a fatal encounter.
More than two years later, prosecutors and McInnis’ relatives still point to that decision as a defining part of the case. Arvoni Alexander Hayes, 25, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm in McInnis’ July 14, 2024, death. Hayes will also serve three years of post-prison supervision. His sentencing on Sept. 11 closed a criminal prosecution that had initially charged him with second-degree murder.
Before the shooting became a homicide case, McInnis was a father whose family said he had a 10-year-old son. KPTV reported days after his death that relatives were still in shock and were focused on supporting the boy after the sudden loss of his father. McInnis’ father spoke publicly about continuing for his grandson and helping make life more comfortable for him. Later family material described McInnis as a son, brother, father and cherished friend and said supporting people in need was part of his character.
That background gave particular weight to the circumstances prosecutors later described. McInnis had not gone to the area seeking Hayes and was not identified as part of an earlier dispute involving the people in the car. He had been dropping off a friend at her home near Normandale Park. Another man approached and said a woman was crying inside a nearby vehicle. The man wanted help checking on her. McInnis chose to accompany him, turning an ordinary stop at a friend’s home into the encounter that ended his life.
Hayes was in the car with the woman, whom the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office described as his girlfriend. Prosecutors said Hayes stepped out naked and eventually agreed to leave the woman alone. He then began getting dressed. The situation did not end there. According to the district attorney, Hayes suddenly jumped back into the car and yelled at the woman to drive them away. McInnis ran after the vehicle as it sped from the area, continuing an encounter that had begun because of concern for the woman’s welfare.
At a nearby intersection, prosecutors said Hayes got out of the vehicle and fired at McInnis. McInnis was hit three times. Police and emergency responders took him to Oregon Health and Science University, where he died. Earlier KPTV reporting said officers had responded at about 11:30 p.m. to Northeast 55th Avenue and Hassalo Street and found McInnis suffering from gunshot wounds. The medical examiner later confirmed that he died from the shooting injuries, converting the police response into a homicide investigation.
Some court-related reporting describes the encounter in greater detail and shows that not every part of the sequence was presented identically. Law&Crime reported that witnesses and court documents said there was concern the woman might be unsafe and that Hayes and the woman initially indicated they were OK. Other reported court material described an argument between McInnis and Hayes before Hayes returned to the vehicle. The district attorney’s later summary said McInnis ran after the departing car and Hayes fired at a nearby intersection. The accounts differ somewhat about the movement immediately before the gunfire, but Hayes’ later plea resolved his criminal responsibility for McInnis’ death.
McInnis’ death left his family confronting consequences that were largely absent from the legal language of charges and plea agreements. His son had lost his father. His parents had lost their adult child. Friends and relatives described a man whose work and interests existed far outside the criminal case that came to define public accounts of his final night. Law&Crime reported that McInnis worked as a sales representative for a Portland-area company, while family material described a person whose support for others had made an impression on many people around him.
Deputy District Attorney Eric Palmer returned to that part of McInnis’ life after Hayes was sentenced. Palmer called McInnis “a hero to the very end” and said he did not hesitate to check on the safety of a stranger. The statement framed the case around McInnis’ reason for entering the confrontation rather than the details of the shooting. The district attorney’s office also thanked homicide investigators and victim advocates who worked with McInnis’ family as the case moved from investigation to prosecution and, eventually, sentencing.
The path to that sentencing took two years. Hayes was not arrested on the night McInnis died. A Multnomah County grand jury later indicted him on second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a loaded firearm in a public place. U.S. Marshals arrested Hayes without incident on Sept. 11, 2024, and he was arraigned the next day. He entered a not guilty plea, and prosecutors noted that he remained presumed innocent while the charges were pending. At that point, the state would have been required to prove the allegations if the case went to trial.
The case instead ended through guilty pleas. Hayes admitted to first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm. That distinction matters because he was not ultimately convicted of the second-degree murder offense first alleged in the indictment. The plea established guilt for the crimes Hayes admitted and removed the need for jurors to decide whether prosecutors could prove the original murder charge. The court then imposed the 18-year prison term and three years of supervision that will follow his release.
Several questions about the events before McInnis approached the car remain unanswered in the public record. Prosecutors said another man heard the woman crying. Law&Crime reported that the woman later told police she feared for her life while with Hayes, but the report said the reason was not immediately clear. Because the prosecution ended with a plea rather than a trial, there was no extended public presentation of testimony explaining every interaction among Hayes, the woman, McInnis and the other man who first sought help.
What is clear is that McInnis’ decision to walk toward the vehicle was not described by authorities as part of an existing conflict. It followed a request from a stranger who thought another person might need assistance. That distinction has remained central to the case precisely because it separates McInnis’ purpose from the violence that followed. He was not accused of arriving armed or of initiating a shooting. Prosecutors described him as a person responding to concern about someone else’s safety, and his relatives have portrayed that response as consistent with how he treated people throughout his life.
The court’s sentence provides a formal conclusion for the prosecution, but it does not resolve the loss described by McInnis’ family after his death. His father’s early comments focused on continuing for McInnis’ son. Later accounts focused on the man McInnis had been before the killing. The legal system, meanwhile, reduced the case to defined offenses and a defined punishment: first-degree manslaughter, unlawful use of a weapon, 18 years in prison and three years of supervision after release.
For McInnis’ family, the end of the prosecution does not change the circumstance that first drew him into the encounter: another person told him a woman appeared to need help, and he chose to respond. Hayes will serve 18 years in prison and three years of supervision afterward, while McInnis’ relatives are left with the loss of the father and family member they said was known for helping others.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.